


Three days before Christmas, my true love gave to me....

by Werepirechick



Category: Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (TV 2012), Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles - All Media Types
Genre: Best Friends, Christmas, Commission fic, F/M, Fluff, Friends to Lovers, Holidays, Love Confessions, Romance, honestly idk what else to tag it as but just expect donnie being very smitten and then smooches, just good shit very calm very nice
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-11
Updated: 2018-01-11
Packaged: 2019-03-03 07:58:19
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,260
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13336830
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Werepirechick/pseuds/Werepirechick
Summary: After everything they’ve been through together, after all the years they’ve known one another… this is the first Christmas they’ve had peace. No one missing, or mutated, or out for their heads. Just their families, snow, and holiday activities.The wars they’ve been fighting for so long, they’re finally all over. This is as safe and calm their lives have been since the first night they knew each other, and Donnie wants to make it special.





	Three days before Christmas, my true love gave to me....

**Author's Note:**

> commissioned by marbleousmego on tumblr, some extrodinarily sweet apritello christmas confessions. <3
> 
> (its late i know but it took me a while to finish it for whatever reason don't judge me k)

Donnie was, is, and probably always will be in love with April O’Neil.

He’s always been a very factual person. He prefers realism over fantasy nine times out of ten simply because that’s just what his existence allows. As unbelievable as he and his family might be, Donnie has always tried to keep himself firmly in the area of ‘believable’. Maybe because it’s been out of self-preservation due to his living situation, or perhaps cynical perspective borne from overexposure to science and math, which usually has clear reason and cause and result.

April, for him, never had a clear reason or cause. The result has been obvious enough, though.

The result had been, and still is, his eyes falling on red hair and red freckles and eyes that are sharp and aware, and the muscles in his chest tightening to the point he can’t breathe and doesn’t want to.

Prior to April, love at first sight had been an unrealistic concept to Donnie. The idea of meeting someone (as farfetched as  _that_  concept for him on its own was) and falling in love without knowing a single thing about them… just seemed impossible. Until April, Donnie had lived in an enclosed world, occupied by only four other people. The idea of loving someone without knowing every part of them first didn’t sound like something he could ever achieve. He knew more than he ever wanted to about his brothers, and loving them still sometimes turned into a real effort.

It’d been very, very easy to love April. From the first moment he laid eyes on her, to the millionth time he had tonight. She’d been someone who inevitably and irresistibly draws his eyes to her, and Donnie hasn’t fought that draw even once.

They’d started rocky, and under duress, certainly, but… Donnie’s first moment of blinding emotion for April steadily morphed into unshakable, unconditional love. He feels (or hopes, at least) that she returns those feelings. He’s not sure.

He really, really hopes she does. After everything they’ve been through together, after all the years they’ve known one another… this is the first Christmas they’ve had peace. No one missing, or mutated, or out for their heads. Just their families, snow, and holiday activities.

The wars they’ve been fighting for so long, they’re finally all over. This is as safe and calm their lives have been since the first night they knew each other, and Donnie wants to make it special.

He’s been wavering on that decision for a number of weeks now. What they have as it stands is good all on its own. Donnie loves April as his friend, not just as someone he wants to have romance with. He doesn’t want to ruin that and make everything awkward. Coming out and actually saying he loves her, loves her like  _that,_  and not having it returned would probably be even more awkward than the time April accidentally vaporized him.

In all honesty, Donnie would rather get vaporized into molecules a second time around rather than lose his best friend. Romance or no, April is someone he can’t imagine his life without. Losing her, or having to distance their relationship as it stands, would hurt in a way Donnie doesn’t like to imagine.

So, even though his heart speeds up a little every time she smiles at him, and April’s laugh makes his stomach flip even at nineteen, and he’s always, always transfixed by how graceful and beautiful she is when they’re running across rooftops, wild and free and powerful in a way no one can ever touch and just… so beautiful.

Despite all those things, he’s still wavering.

But a part of Donnie knows that if he never tells her, this will sit in him, on his conscience, for the rest of his life. The weight of just how  _much_  he loves April, and never saying it out loud, to her face, like she deserves it.

April deserves love. She deserves someone who loves her sincerely, completely, and openly. She deserves the entire world, in Donnie’s opinion, and everything in it. He dearly hopes she settles for all of him, instead.

 

 

 

He chooses an evening a few nights before Christmas. They’ve both got their own family traditions and gatherings to attend, however much April has been brought into the fold of Donnie’s. And besides. Confessing to someone on Christmas is cliché and tacky. If it goes wrong, then  _everyone’s_  holiday is ruined. He feels it’s more polite to confess three days before Christmas than to do it the day of, like so many cheesy romantic comedies do.

That knowledge doesn’t make him feel any less queasy, walking April home in the late evening snow. It’s been a good winter this year, though Donnie is too busy feeling nervous to really take it in. It’s not cold to the point he can’t stand to be out and about, but it’s been cold enough that snow has steadily fallen over the weeks. And, cold enough that none of it melted and turned into ice or slush.

It’s purely white all around them, illuminated by the streetlights and traffic intersections. Fresh snowfall dampening the noise of New York and making everything seem far away from them. If there were ever a winter moment to call picturesque, even with Donnie’s biasedness against the season, he would say it’s now.

Donnie is wrapped in a huge winter coat, with a hat and scarf to further hide himself, and for once feels unafraid to walk under the streetlights with April. No one looks twice at someone bundled head to toe during this season. It’s the one benefit to its freezing everything.

That, and how cutely pink April’s cheeks turn as the cold air reddens them. As they’ve walked, snowflakes have caught on her red hair and black earmuffs; melting bit by bit, but not so quickly the effect of a snow halo is ruined. They’ve been walking in silence for a number of blocks now, their shoulders bumping now and again, and Donnie is finding it very hard to look at anything other than the snowflakes catching on April’s eyelashes.

She catches him looking, ever quick observance spotting his gaze. April looks up, blinking the melting ice crystals out of her lashes, and smiles at him.

Instead of the usual rapid skip of his heart, Donnie feels gentle warmth. Warmth that settles in his chest, not overwhelming, but instead… simply there.

And he knows. He knows that even though they’re both young, and he’s only had the chance to meet a handful of individuals who looked at him and didn’t scream monster, that this is who he wants to be with. April is the person he loves, and for whatever anyone else might say, Donnie doubts he could ever love someone again like he loves her right here, right now.

He stops walking, steps slowing until he’s standing still in the middle of the sidewalk.

April stops as well, turning around and giving him a raised eyebrow.

“What?” she asks. “You forget something you have to do back home?”

Donnie takes a slow breath. It’s now or never.

“I have something to tell you,” he says.

April’s frowns slightly. “It’s not something bad, right?”

“Uh, no, no hopefully not,” Donnie jokes, though it’s a poor one. He clears his throat, trying to find the right words out of the hundreds of thousands of times he’s imagined this conversation.

April gives him a concerned look, patient as he forms his next sentence. The wind stirs around them, blowing a flurry of falling snow upwards again and catching stray hairs from April’s ponytail.

Donnie looks at her, standing there on the sidewalk in front of him, and feels the swell of warmth again.

She’s beautiful. April is beautiful in every sense, despite and because of all the scars she carries, some gotten on behalf of him, of Donnie’s family, and still holding so much compassion and hope in herself, after everything they’ve been through.

April is beautiful, and Donnie finds his words as he takes in the whole of who she is, for the millionth time.

“April, you are… probably one of the smartest people I know,” he starts.

“Thanks?” April says, lips quirking.

“And, you’re one of the kindest,” Donnie continues. He smiles as an embarrassed grin spreads across her face. “And on top of that, you’re incredibly brave. Braver than most people could ever imagine being.”

April tilts her head, listening, if confused. Donnie keeps going.

“And you’re my best friend,” he says, honest and warm. “You were my first friend, and I’m really, really glad for that. You’re, um. You’re amazing, April. You’re smart and kind and brave and I can’t think of anyone else I’d rather have as a friend.”

“Oh, Donnie,” April says, smiling and taking a step towards him. He holds out a hand, putting up a finger for her to wait.

“We’ve been through a lot of crazy, terrible stuff, right?” he says. “And a lot of that you didn’t have to be involved with. The fact that you were, that you stuck it out and just. Were  _there_  for me and my brothers through everything… it means a lot to me. To all of us, I mean, but especially to me. For every time something horrible happened, there were a dozen more times you made it better for me, just by being my friend. And you’re just,” he gestures helplessly. “you’re just  _incredible,_  in so many ways. You work hard, and are always finding a way to improve your abilities, and never give up on anything. I don’t know how I would have been able to handle everything you had to deal with, with the Kraang and your father and all the insane bullshit that my family dragged you into. But you did, and you’re so, so strong for it.”

“Where are you going with all this?” April asks, and Donnie thinks her voice has gone soft in a way it hasn’t before.

Donnie sighs, smiling in a way that probably looks dumb, but he can’t help it.

“April… I love you,” he says, and it’s like finally letting go of something he’s been clutching for years.

April’s eyebrows go up, her blue eyes wide in the pale light of the street. Her lips part in a gentle little  _o_.

“I, um. Have for years, actually,” Donnie says, feeling a tad embarrassed for it. “Since… since I first met you, honestly. You just… mean so much to me, April. And even if you don’t return those feelings, I just want you to know. You were the first person I ever fell in love with, and I haven’t ever been able to get over that.”

He finally stops, before blurts out something  _really_  awkward, like that he doesn’t ever  _want_  to get over loving April. His confession hangs in the quiet night air, not answered, but…

Not refused, either.

Donnie looks up at April, after having let his eyes fall to the ground as his words got away from him, and finds glossy sheen to her sky blues as she sniffles.

“Oh my god, Donnie,” she says, putting her hands over her mouth. Donnie can see the tips of her mouth, curled up in a smile that puts a flutter of hope in him. “You stupidly romantic nerd, oh my god. Donnie. It’s Christmas, Donnie. And you’re doing this now?”

Donnie gives a sheepish smile. “Yes…?”

April drops her hands, shaking her head and moving towards him. Donnie opens his arms without thinking about it, placing his hands on the small of April’s back as her slim fingers clutch the collar of his coat.

“I can’t believe you,” she says, laughing as she sniffles again. April puts her palms on either side of his face, fingers warm from her pockets and holding him gently.

“Not in a mad at me way, right?” he asks.

April shakes her head, smiling widely and giving him a look that leaves Donnie breathless.

“Donnie, I think you’re smart, too,” she says softly. “I think you’re smarter than anyone in the world. I think you’re kinder than anyone I’ve ever met, and I think you’re braver than I could ever hope to be. I mean. Everything you have to deal with? You’re so strong, have been  _so strong_ through all of it. You work so hard for us all, and I’ve never seen you give up on a single person. You’re brilliant, and amazing, and. And you’re my best friend, too, Donnie. My very best friend.”

“And?” Donnie says in a whisper.

“And I love you, too,” April says. She pulls him down, slowly, smiling at him with exactly that in her eyes. “I love you, too, Donnie.”

She kisses him, soft and gentle like the snow falling from the sky, and Donnie doesn’t care he can’t breathe at all.

When they part, breath clouding the air white between them, April doesn’t let him pull away further than a few inches.

“Merry Christmas,” she says with the grin that has always made Donnie feel like he’s floating without gravity, which hasn’t changed at all after all this time.

“Merry Christmas,” he says quietly, and can’t help the smitten grin he makes when April takes his hands into hers.

They walk the rest of the way to April’s home as slowly as possible, talking about what the future might hold for them. And they do it hand in hand, like Donnie has always wanted to.

**Author's Note:**

> if you have questions about me, my writing, and this fic... [just hmu on tumblr and check out my info there.](https://onthespectrumwriting.tumblr.com/)


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